The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation (Management on the Cutting Edge) | Gerald C. Kane - Anh Nguyen Phillips - Jonathan R. Copulsky - Garth R. Andrus

Why an organization's response to digital disruption should focus on people and processes and not necessarily on technology.

Digital technologies are disrupting organizations of every size and shape, leaving managers scrambling to find a technology fix that will help their organizations compete. This book offers managers and business leaders a guide for surviving digital disruptions—but it is not a book about technology. It is about the organizational changes required to harness the power of technology. The authors argue that digital disruption is primarily about people and that effective digital transformation involves changes to organizational dynamics and how work gets done. A focus only on selecting and implementing the right digital technologies is not likely to lead to success. The best way to respond to digital disruption is by changing the company culture to be more agile, risk tolerant, and experimental.

The authors draw on four years of research, conducted in partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, surveying more than 16,000 people and conducting interviews with managers at such companies as Walmart, Google, and Salesforce. They introduce the concept of digital maturity—the ability to take advantage of opportunities offered by the new technology—and address the specifics of digital transformation, including cultivating a digital environment, enabling intentional collaboration, and fostering an experimental mindset. Every organization needs to understand its “digital DNA” in order to stop “doing digital” and start “being digital.”

Digital disruption won't end anytime soon; the average worker will probably experience numerous waves of disruption during the course of a career. The insights offered by The Technology Fallacy will hold true through them all.

A book in the Management on the Cutting Edge series, published in cooperation with MIT Sloan Management Review.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Must-Read for Digital Leaders.--Thrive Global-- --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

This is a timely and very relevant book for executives struggling to lead organizations through digital transformation. Using data from multiple years of global surveys, the authors zero in on the key organizational and cultural issues that executives need to address, and provide practical advice on how they can build digital capabilities and capacity for transformation.

―Maryam Alavi, Dean and Stephen P. Zelnak, Jr. Chair; Professor of IT Management; Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Garth R. Andrus is a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He has been a member of the Board of Directors at Deloitte and has held other leadership roles with the company. He leads Digital DNA services, which helps companies make the shift to organizing work, operating, and behaving effectively in a digital age. He has been cited in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Chief Executive Magazine, AdWeek, and Workforce Management. He has written articles for publications such as Advertising Age, Sloan Management Review, Human Capital Trends, and Talent Economy. Early in his career, he was a professor for seven years in organization studies at Vanderbilt and George Washington Universities. He has a doctorate from Vanderbilt University. Jonathan R. Copulsky teaches marketing, branding, and marketing technology at Northwestern University. Gerald C. Kane is Professor of Information Systems at Boston College. Anh Nguyen Phillips is a researcher and author who studies the impact of emerging digital technologies on an organization's leadership, talent, and culture. Her work has been cited in leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal, MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes, and Fortune. She is also coauthor of The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation. Prior to this, she spent over ten years in Deloitte Consulting LLP, where she led business and technology teams in implementing Customer Relationship Management and order management solutions. She has a BA in humanities and did post-graduate studies in comparative literature, where she explored the intersection of technology and culture. Anh Nguyen Phillips is a researcher and author who studies the impact of emerging digital technologies on an organization's leadership, talent, and culture. Her work has been cited in leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal, MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes, and Fortune. She is also coauthor of The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation. Prior to this, she spent over ten years in Deloitte Consulting LLP, where she led business and technology teams in implementing Customer Relationship Management and order management solutions. She has a BA in humanities and did post-graduate studies in comparative literature, where she explored the intersection of technology and culture.